Big players invest in UK space engine

LONDON:- Reaction Engines Limited (REL), the UK company developing a revolutionary aerospace engine, has announced investments from both Boeing and Rolls-Royce. REL, based at Culham in Oxfordshire, is working on a propulsion system that is part jet engine, part rocket engine. The company believes it will transform the space launch market and usher in hypersonic travel around the Earth. The new investments amount to £26.5m. Included in this sum are contributions from Baillie Gifford Asset Management and Woodford Investment Management. It lifts the total capital raised in the past three years to about £100m.